Why Droid Slavery is So Much More Depressing Than What it Looks Like - The Rabbit Hole Goes Deep

The more you think about it, the more frakked up Star Wars is

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🎬Video Credits:
Narrators - Pat
Editor - Giorgi
Writers - Sean

Disclaimer:

Chapters:

0:00 Intro
0:55 The Metal Underclass
3:39 The Chains Within
7:31 Revolution
9:46 Outro

[grandadmiralzaarin]

I never liked how the sentience of the droids in TCW is treated like a joke when they're clearly facing existential and philosophical dread at their situation.

[RickardLejonhjarta]

people hate on the jack black episode of Mandalorian but i Really liked the idea that there was a droid speakeasy where they gathered in secret and they feared being deactivated
it was a really good subplot that should be explored more often

[FastTquick]

The best way to combat droid slavery is to follow the R2-D2 example. Even though Luke Skywalker owns R2-D2 and C-3PO, he treats them like members of his family and refuses to sell them or wipe their memories.

[ImmaLittlePip]

B1 battle droids were program to feel pain

[adamalatorre]

There is ton of biological slavery in Star Wars to. Like how Anakin and Shmi explained how they had explosives in them to prevent them from fleeing or Jabba feeding upity slaves to his Rancor. I think the reason the various "good guy" factions are okay with droid slavery is cause they can say well at least where not putting bombs in kids or feeding people to monsters. Slavery of all kinds has been a big part of Star Wars from the beginning.

[marshalllatta]

Man I will hate to be a droid in star wars l always feel so bad for All droids in star wars they definitely deserve more respect

[marcelozerbini]

"if droids could think, there would be none of us around here"

No mention to that quote from Obi Wan?

[tacticaldroidtx]

The thing is that droid sentience is a rather ambiguous topic. Droids have humane mannerisms but not humane desires. They follow their programming and don't really seem to have internal conflicts about it. You only have very few cases of droids going rogue like IG-88. Mostly assasin droids seem to go rogue.

[zenarion]

I think this is a great video. One of the problems with the Star Wars movies, is that they seldom try to engage with the inherent problems of the medium. They are war movies, about war heroes and battles. Not about causes of war, not about refugees. Slavery (both biological beings and droids) exists right there, and nobody questions it. The movies themselves seldom raise these questions, but then we do it as fans. And I am glad that a large youtube account like yours talks about these themes and issues. As you say in the beginning of the video, we as fans should reflect more about the real-world problems that are mirrored in the movies.

And I guess it is fine: the movies should probably be big summer blockbusters. But the books, the games, the comics, really could do more. And they do. But then, we as fans, do we want Star Wars movies that engage with other topics than glorious space battles and the personal history of the Skywalker family? I do, but maybe I ask too much from a very profit-driven summer blockbuster franchise.

Well, there's always Andor.

[mill]

I always wondered. How would droids from star wars react being in a setting where robots or drones like them existed and can do similar or even surpass their functionality but don't have any sort of sentient/sapient AI similar to AI of today or the expanse series.

And how would they react to an AI similar to Cortana from Halo a series where AI is quite advanced but are more like digital programs that can control multiple functions rather than a single droid body.

[zincwing]

Why are there no computer based robots that have no sentience? They could probably do 90% of droid labor with proper programming and more with human control.

I think Star Wars computers may be somewhat less than we have today. It would explain a lot, like the computer of the Falcon needing minutes to calculate a course. Droids are apparently more capable, but only when sentient.

I heard Star Wars tech is reverse engineered from old archeology. That would explain why they have very advanced droids, but very bad computers; with such advanced droids, computers would be redundant.

[djolds]

The genocidal Droid Supremacy of this piece of Machine Propaganda is really quite disturbing.

[Golden-fan]

Shout out to L3-37 from solo who is now in a living hell stuck inside a ship as a disembodied consciousness who can't speak and is forced to do math problems all day.

[funnelvortex]

It’s not just with Star Wars but in media in general where the suffering of sapient AI and robots is written completely off, especially in media working with censor restrictions due to being aimed towards kids where there’s this whole idea that it’s 100% OK to kill sapient beings as long as they are not organic. A lot of platformer games fall into this trap and I remember watching Samurai Jack as a kid thinking how just making the bad guys “robots” doesn’t make their deaths any less of, well, deaths.

In fact, if we are going with the whole “organics have souls and robots do not” trope then that just makes robot deaths even *darker* since they don’t get an afterlife like organics do, they’re just *gone*, but a lot of said media treats it like nothing.

Robots and AIs just have it really hard in media and on a disturbingly casual level. If it’s a reflection of how we’d treat real sapient AIs or robots I’m the future then it’s no wonder AIs like Skynet and AM hated humanity so much.

[jessegitchell]

Sentience and intelligence are two separate traits. Jar Jar is a clear example of this on the organic side. Droids are absolutely intelligent and, within their programming, develop personalities. But they are not truly sentient or alive.

[codename]

I think it's kinda sad that even other droids can disregard droids. I remember that one tactical droid from Season 1 of The Clone Wars.

_"This is taking too long! Open fire!"_
"But sir, there are still hundreds of droids on board!"
*_"I don't care!"_*
"Roger roger..."

[alphalegion]

I really hope we see some future Star Wars media that focuses on droid rights and rebellion in a positive light. They've made it clear that droids are an oppressed sentient group and continuing to treat them they way they do I feel goes against the franchise's central theme of fighting oppression. Roger Roger all the way!

[fostermoody]

Droids arent slaves, theyre property. They are equipment, tools. They have a programmed personality and can learn, and so like a classic car can develop a personality over time, but generally that is to become cranky and beligerent (like an old car). Every once in a while you get an owner that has a very good factory model, and takes remarkably good care of their equipment, and so it becomes more excellent and personable with age, like Luke with R2D2, but even though he treats his equipment like an old friend, it's still not a person.

A droid that decides it wants to stop being property isn't suddenly a person, it's malfunctioning equipment in need of repair.

[ajra]

If it weren't for R2-D2, the saga would've been a lot shorter.

[MrSmithSAH]

"Differently sentient"

I like that